Page 1 of Delivered to My Wolves

Chapter One

Haven

“Do we need a category for rejected mates?” The question pulled me from the side quest in my head. There were always two or three tabs open in this brain of mine.

“What about rejected mates?” I asked and ticked my gaze over to Tilly, my best friend and assistant. I felt seen but waited to react. Surely they weren’t talking about me. No one knew about my experience.

“It seems that there are a lot of people who are listing rejected on their relationship status or former relationship status. Should we put them in their own category?”

My hackles raised. Hawke was good at his job but prickly around the edges. The things he said sometimes didn’t come out as…kind as they could’ve. “I don’t think anyone gets onto the app looking for someone who was previously rejected. If they are, they are looking for someone to take advantage of or abuse and so…no. That doesn’t sound like a category we want to add.”

I might have been biased.

I tugged at the collar of my sleeveless turtleneck sweater and recrossed my legs under the conference table.

“Oh.” He blanched and put his hands into his pockets. “I…shit, I didn’t think of that, Hay. I’m sorry.”

Even Hawke, one of my other close friends, didn’t know about that night with Jerome. Only Tilly did. Hawke meant no harm. I could tell.

“No apology necessary.” I waved my hand in the air, making a note from one of my random thoughts. “That’s why we are all here, to volley ideas off of each other. Let’s move on. What’s this about giving people the option to name their own species?”

Hawke’s shoulders relaxed, but he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up. Good. Now we were getting somewhere. He was back in business. “With the way this app is growing and changing, there are species that we don’t know about joining every day. But the ones looking for mates need as many options as those looking to be mated. Remember the orcs? They had to email us to see if they were included for our app. We don’t want to go through that process again. If their species isn’t listed, then they can add it. Adding it also makes it available for choosing the species you want to mate to as well. It’s a win-win.”

Tilly leaned forward. She took notes like her life depended on it and was somehow able to scribble and talk at the same time. “What are we thinking here? I saw the orcs but, just out of personal curiosity, what other species have joined?”

Hawke reached out for his notebook and flipped some pages. “Bigfoots. Basilisks. Orcs, of course. Gargoyles.”

“Gargoyles?” Tilly shuddered. “Damn, I’d love me a rock-hard…”

“Tilly,” I growled. She was as talented as she was foulmouthed, and I’d known her so long that I could predict what she was about to say, and none of it was morning meeting appropriate.

“What? Everyone was thinking it.”

I shook my head and reached for my coffee, but it was empty. Damn it. Hawke continued, going over some updates and things, but Tilly’s fist got my attention. When she balled her fist on the table, it meant I had five minutes until my next appointment.

Despite Tilly’s warning, the meeting went ten minutes over. They always did. I left the room after thanking everyone for their input, and I meant it. I had the best team and I would still be a young woman with an app and an unrealizable dream without them.

We always ended the meeting by reading one of our reviews from people who had found their forever mates. It reminded me of my purpose. My why. It reminded all of us.

I loved that my work meant something. We were helping shifters and apparently creatures of all kinds find their happiness.

“Finance. In your office. The video is waiting, so no fixing your boobs or picking your nose when you sit down. Hit the unmute button. Unless you need to fart then get that over with before you do.”

I cracked up. Till knew how to keep things going but also was my stress-and-comedic relief when I needed it.

“I don’t have to fart.”

She shrugged and sat across from the desk, behind the monitor—where she could frown and make faces while I tried to be serious. “You had two cups of coffee this morning. I’m just saying.”

“You know entirely too much about me. Now, let’s get this over with.”

I hated financial meetings. They always wanted to make the app cost more money to join or charge more money if the mating was successful. More for harems and reverse harems since there were multiple partners.

So, with me negating most of what they were saying, it was over almost before it began.

“Dinner tonight,” Tilly reminded me, and I nodded, shooing her out of the office. I had things to do. I wanted to check on the changes the team was making. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, but I liked to be as hands-on as I could.

That night, we dressed up because we could and went out to our favorite steakhouse.

---